Tag: education

Project News

Hawthorne Elementary Tops Out and 701 Magnolia Ramps Up

The Hawthorne Elementary School topped out this month in Dallas, TX earlier this month. The low-rise project is two levels above grade totaling 81,500gsf with a 6′ tall mini basement or crawl space below. The first elevated deck above the void is cast-in-place with level two being a combination of concrete and slab-on-metal-deck. Largo is also doing the site concrete scope for the facility scheduled to open during the Fall of 2021. This is our first project with Imperial Construction, Glen Partners Architects and Alpha Consulting Engineers and we look forward to many more in the future.

701 West Magnolia
Forty miles to the west in the Near Southside district of Fort Worth, Largo is beginning construction on the 701 W Magnolia development with general contractor Muckleroy & Falls. The four level creative office building has retail on the ground floor which runs along an open-air mall. On the opposite side of the mall features historic buildings dating back 100-years . A three level parking structure is also included in the development designed by VLK Architects and L.A. Fuess Partners structural engineers. Largo is scheduled to be poured out by October 2021.

Awards, Project News

UCLA Margo Leavin Art Studio Wins Charles Pankow Award

Largo Concrete worked with Abbott Construction on the UCLA Warner Graduate Art Studio Project in Culver City, CA.

The overall project consisted of a 21,200sf renovation of the Graduate Art Studios existing building and a 26,800sf, L-shaped addition to the facility. Design by architecture firm Johnston Marklee, the building is organized in the fashion of a ‘community’ with small blocks of private studios in a cul-de-sac setting adjacent to communal, plaza like facilities connected by pathways akin to city streets. Specialized lab space for woodworking and ceramics are also included in the facility which is designed to be adaptable to accommodate future new technologies and working methods. The Margo Leavin Art Studio project anticipates a LEED Gold Certification.

The construction of this building utilized several different concrete assemblies to support the building and achieve the natural concrete look. This was especially important to designers and the University to integrate the facility into the former industrial zone know as the Hayden Tract. The exterior walls were designed as concrete tilt-up panels with 2′-0″ “pillows” or half-circles on the exterior face. Special single-use form liners were designed and fabricated out of state to achieve the “pillow” shapes. Cast-in-place stitch columns were used to connect the tilt panels at each grid line. The stitch columns also used the “pillow-shaped” form liner but were exceptionally challenging because they were poured full-height (28′-10″) between the panels and had to line up perfectly with no gaps or visible seams. Largo Concrete’s in-house engineering team designed custom falsework to support lintel panels which would eventually be suspended 15’-0” in the air. These panels also feature the “pillowed” exterior finish and are unsupported from below as they span the openings to the building.

The interior frame of the building consists of cast-in-place walls, columns and ring beams: all exposed with an “as-cast” finish. Shotcrete walls and beams were installed against the existing building walls on two sides to connect the new construction to the existing building. As was the case with the exterior finish, no sacking or other cosmetic enhancements were allowed on the interior as well. The buildings roof is designed as a grid of vaults with curved glulam beams covered by roofing membrane, curved polycarbonate or nothing at all to allow for natural ventilation in certain spaces.

Limited access to the building pad because of the existing structure made it difficult to form, place and hoist the tilt-up panels. The time frame to complete all of the building concrete was 8 months. Despite these challenges the concrete scope of work was completed in eight months with zero safety incidents over 29,213 hours. Some of the potential hazards that were endured included 30’-0” shotcrete walls and beams, 30’-0” shear walls and columns, 30’-0” tilt-up panels and hoisting the panels with a high voltage wire running along one side of the jobsite.

A special thanks to all those involved in this great project:
Owner: University of California, Los Angeles
General Contractor: Abbott Construction
Architect: Johnston Marklee
Structural Engineer: Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger
Readymix Supplier: Cemex

Project News

UCSD North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Center Buildings Three & Four

Largo recently topped out on the North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Center at the University of California, San Diego. The project was designed by HKS Architect, Inc. and Magnusson Klemencic Associates is located on the southeast corner of North Torrey Pines Rd. and Muir College Dr. in La Jolla, CA. Largo’s scope only covered a portion of the overall development with buildings Three and Four consisting of 15 and 14 levels respectively, for a total of 600,000gsf. The development features 2,000 new beds for undergraduate students with related residential life space, new facilities for the Sixth College, social sciences, arts and humanities, dining and retail space, and 1,200 parking stalls. General contractor Clark Construction is aiming to have the development open for the Fall 2020 semester with a LEED Platium rating.

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Project News

Cal Poly Pomona Student Services Building Tops Out

Cal Poly Pomona Student Services Building recently topped out with the last of 17 shotcrete applications on the roof. The two low-rise structures are four and three levels above grade totaling 138,400gsf. The buildings will house offices for the university’s administrative staff, multi-purpose meeting and test-taking spaces, financial support, cashier,  finance, registration and information technology. The most unique aspect of the project is the ‘wavy’ roof which undulates with large perforated overhangs covering both buildings. The roof is designed to mimic the hills which surround the campus and reduce thermal loads and glare while maximizing daylight into the structure. Working with general contractor CW Driver, CO Architects, and John A. Martin & Associates Structural Engineers, the building is seeking a LEED Silver Certification and is expected to open during the Fall of 2018.

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Project News

UC Riverside Multidisciplinary Research Building Tops-Out

The Multidisciplinary Research Building topped-out this week at the University of California, Riverside. Working with general contractor Hensel Phelps, Smith Group JJR Architecture and Saiful Bouquet Structural Engineers the building a basement with five levels above grade for a total of 179,540gsf. Located between the Dept. of Bioengineering and the Student Recreation Center, the main atrium entrance spans four levels off Aberdeen Drive. The facility will house research laboratories, support facilities, a vivarium along with faculty and academic support space. The building is scheduled to be open in the Fall of 2018 and is seeking the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification.

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Focusing on the integration of life sciences, chemical sciences, medicine and engineering, this will be the fourth project Largo has completed on university campuses with the same collaborative STEM goal: The Chapman University Science and Technology Building in Orange, the USC Michelson Center for Convergent BioSciences in Los Angeles and the Stanford BioEngineering/ChemEngineering Building.

Project News

USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences

Largo recently completed the 225,000gsf Michelson Center for Convergent BioSciences at the University of Southern California. The facility will be home to an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences with the Viterbi School of Engineering. The building features one basement level and four levels above grade and will house high-tech medical equipment including a nano-fabrication facility and an electron microscope. The exterior of the building features two story tall concrete arches at both entrances and exposed, board-form architectural concrete finish on the interior face of the perimeter walls. Designed by HOK  with John A. Martin & Associates as the structural engineer, Largo worked with general contractor DPR Construction to deliver this project on-time and under budget.

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